He started and looked at her keenly. Was it possible that she did not guess? Had she misunderstood him all along? His heart beat with a sudden hope.
"I am fleeing from that misery that the poet has put into immortal doggerel," he said. "Have you never heard of it, Leonora? That pain which is
"'Of all pains the greatest pain,
To love and not be loved again?'"
She looked at him with a new, strange light in her soft eyes that made his heart beat tumultuously.
"Yes, I have heard of it," she said; "but I did not know that you were a victim to its pangs. Who is it that you love, Lord Lancaster?"
"Is it possible you do not know?" he asked; and then he saw that her eyes were shining with hope, and her whole graceful form trembling.
He took the small hands again into his, and she did not offer to take them away.
"I will make a compact with you, Leonora," he said. "If I will tell you whom I love, will you then tell me to whom you have given your heart?"
"Yes, I will tell you," she replied, with a soft, sweet laugh.